August 12, 2008

"... in image, in her internal feelings, and in her expression. In the matter of her voice, Yang Peiyi was flawless, in the unanimous opinion of all the members of the team."

The 7-year-old won the "grueling competition " to sing "Hymn to the Motherland," but a member of the Chinese politburo didn't like her teeth: "So we made the choice. I think it is fair to both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi - after all, we have a perfect voice, a perfect image and a perfect show, in our team's view, all together."

Officials have already admitted that the pictures of giant firework footprints which marched across Beijing towards the stadium on Friday night were prerecorded, digitally enhanced and inserted into footage beamed across the world.

Yah, so? Who was complaining about this? (Potential answer: someone dopey enough to have assumed that was real-time)

Movie musicals are better when the singing is live, such as the death scene in "Evita" and Rex Harrison in "My Fair Lady." But these are movies and are not presented as live. We know what we're getting. If you present it as live, on the other hand, it should be live, and it's better live. It's thrilling.

Why do the Beijing Olympics remind me of games before I was born - BERLIN 1936?Certainly it's the show masking the realities.Maybe it's the authoritarian nature of the governments.Maybe it's stories like "The real singer wasn't pretty enough".Maybe it's because the host nation is winning a lot of medals, and, incidentally, has a LARGE professional army.

Of course, I'm not in Beijing, so what I know is filtered through media sources.My impressions of the Berlin Olympics come from one of the greatest documentaries I've ever seen - "Olympia" by Leni Riefenstahl.

(My impressions of the Third Reich and of Red China are based on a study of recent or contemporary history)

(As for documentaries, the best was "Triumph des Willens"; although the Marcel Ophuis film "Le Chagrin et la pitié", {"The Sorrow and the Pity"}, is great, and a good deal more subtle. It also has the classic British quote by Sir Anthony Eden, "One who has not suffered the horrors of an occupying power has no right to judge a nation that has.")

"16" year old pre-pubescent Chinese female gymnasts, anyone? Works, I suppose, when the State has complete control of their lives from age 3. And maybe we should save a little nostalgia for the kind and benevolent Mao. He was a 60's kinda guy too, and I understand red was his favorite literary color. The trend seems to have hung around for this carefully arranged Chinese stage play being presented as the Olympics.

If you want to be feminist about this topic, you can mention that actors are less likely to be dubbed, than actresses. There is an insistence that voice should match the flawless face or figure they already have onscreen.

When Andie McDowell's speaking voice and accent in Greystoke was heard, the producers winced. They got Glenn Close to dub her instead of just hiring Glenn Close for the part, presumably because Tarzan wouldn't have a crush on someone who looks like Close.

(I'm being sarcastic)

Ethel Merman had a face of a lorry driver, but the most memorable voice on the American boards ever. She made it on Broadway, but couldn't cut it in Hollywood.

For me, the problem is not the Potemkim Village quality of these events. We all knew it would be just that, from the no spitting laws, to the closing down of factories JUST for the foreigners.

I mean, I just found out the spectacular Opening Ceremony fireworks were "digitally enhanced".

BLAKE - buy the Original Cast Recording of "MY FAIR LADY" - and you can hear Julie Andrews who sounds better than Marni or Audrey in the role. (When she played Holly Golightly, was that Audrey singing "Moon River"?)